Safety starting device.



W. & R. SCHEURERL SAFETY STARTING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT 8, 1915.

1,185,349. Patented May 30, 1016.

2 SHEETSSHEET 2 v WITNESSES I .JWZZZ'QM faxEearew W W05??? fcgzzrew wit 5% WILLIAM; SCHEURER AND ROBERT SCHEURER, OF WEST NEW YORK, NEW JERSEY.

SAFETY STARTING: DEVICE.

messes.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patent d M 3Q 1916 Application filedSeptember 8, 1915. Serial No. 49,485

1 '0 all whom it may concern Be it known that we, lViLLL-ni Sonniinnn and ROBERT Sonnnnsu. citizens of the United Sitates, and residents of est New York,,in the county of Hudson and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Safety Starting Devices, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to safety devices for the manual starting meansof internal combustion engines. and the main object thereof is to provide means for preventing injury from premature explosion or backfire to a person while starting the engine.

Our invention is fully described in the following specification, of which the accompanying drawings form a part, in which like characters refer to like parts in each of the views, and in which Figure 1 is a central, vertical, longitudinal. section taken through our invention showing a crank-shaft and crank in full lines, in cranking position; Fig. 2 is a similar view but showing the parts in alternate or safety positions after engine back-fire; Fig. 3 is a detached, fragmentary, perspective, view of the tubular portion of the crank; Fig. 4 is a section taken on the line 4 4-. of Fig. 1; Fig. 5 is a section taken on the line 55 of Fig. 1; and Fig. 8 is a section taken on the line (h-6 of Fig. 1.

In the drawings forming a part of this application we have shown a portion 7 of the frame of an automobile provided with a recess 8 in-the forward part thereof for the reception of a ratchet-wheel 9 and a spring actuated pawl 10 therefor. said wheel being mounted upon or integral with a sleeve 11 freely rotatable in the frame 7. a plate 12 being bolted to the face of said frame portion to hold the ratchet-wheel in place and thereby the sleeve 11. and it will be noted that said sleeve is prevented from rotating clockwise by the pawl 10, as shown in l i g. 4. The bore of the sleeve 11 encircles the crankshaft 13 and is rotatable independently thereof although locked thereto by meansof pins 14to maintain a constant relationship therewith, and said sleeve carries an inter nal radial pin 15 adjacent its outer end.

The crank-shaft 13 is of reduced diameter at its outer end as shown at 16 and is provided with a pin 17 adjacent the shoulder 18 formed by the two diameters, this pin just clearing the inner wall of the sleeve 11 and the pm 15 just clears the exterior of the reduced portion 16 of the crank-shaft.

The crank 19 comprises a handle portion 20 and a tubular portion 21, the latter of which is of an internal diameter approximating the diameter of the portion 16of the crank-shaft and of an'external diameter approximating the internal diameter of the sleeve 11; in other words the tubular portion 21 fills the space between the crankshaft portion 16 and the sleeve 11, when introduced therebetween. The tubular portion 21- of the crank is provided with a plurality of recesses 22 forming shoulders 23 any one of. which is adapted to engage with one end or the other of the pin 17 in the crank-shaft whereby, when the crank is revolved, the crank-shaft will be rotated thereby, though only in the one direction. The tubular portion 21 is likewise provided with an inclined slot 24 for each of the recesses 22 and beginning at the respective shoulder 23, the respective one of said slots 24 being adapted to receive the pin 15 which is seated in the inner extremity thereof when the crank is being used. However, if the crank be reversely turned and the pin 15 be motionless, said crank is moved longitudinally of the axis of the crank-shaft, outwardly of the sleeve 11, because of the incline 25 of the slot in which said pin 15 is arranged, and this longitudinal movement of the crank moves the shoulder 23 which had been engaged with the pin 17 away from said engagement and, thus, out of any engagement with the crank-shaft. Likewise, if the crank-shaft 13 should kick for any reason, the tubular portion 21 is carried backwardly therewith because of the pin 17 and the contacting shoulder 23 but, inasmuch as the pawl 10 prevents revolution of the ratchet-wheel 9 in this direction, the pin 15 is held motionless and the crank movement out of crank-shaft engagement just described results, and no injury can occur to the person cranking the engine.

In view of the fact that the tubular portion 21 rotates in the normal cranking of the engine it is obvious that the pin 15 must move therewitl'i, and it is for this reason that we provide the ratchet-wheel fl and pawl 10, the teeth on the former being made as numerous as possible in order to reduce back-lash of the ratchet-wheel to a minimum and, thus, advance the moment of crank and crank-shaft liberation in the event of a kick of the latter.

Our invention is very simple and may be adapted to any type of internal combustion engine and, while we have shown the shoulders 23 and slots 24 plural in number,

crank and the crank-shaft preparatory to cranking.

\Vhile we have shown certain structural details adapting our invention to one application thereof, it will be apparent that changes thereover may be made which do not depart from the spirit of the invention and are within the scope of the following claims.

Having fully described our invention, what we claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A device of the class described, comprising a. crank-shaft having a reduced outer end provided with a radialpin, a crank having av tubular portion adapted to engage with said pin in one direction of rotation, a sleeve rotatable on and held in desired relationship with said crank-shaft and rotatable on said tubular portion of said crank, a radial pin in said sleeve projected into an inclined slot in said tubular portion, and means for preventing rotation of said sleeve in one direction, said crank and tubular portion constituting a unit'and separable from said shaft, sleeve, and sleeve pin.

2. A device of the class described, comprising a crank-shaft having a reduced outer end provided with a radial pin, a crank having a tubular portion rotatable on said reduced portion and adapted to engage said pin in one direction of crank rotation, a sleeve rotatable on said tubular portion and on said shaft, means for maintaining a desired relationship between said sleeve and shaft, a ratchet-wheel on said sleeve, and a pawl for preventing sleeve rotation in one direction, said tubular portion having an inclined slot therein adapted to receive a radial pin in said sleeve to disengage said tubular portion from said shaft in a backward kick of the latter, said crank and tubular portion constituting a unit and separable from said shaft, sleeve, and sleeve pin.

In testimony whereof we have signed our names to this specification in the presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

WILLIAM SCHEURER.

ROBERT SCHEURER.

Witnesses: e

EDWARD SCHULTZ, HENRY HAAs. 

